Mobocracy
by hanakazari
Summary: In which Chenaol discovers that in the case of the Crow triplets, late is far better than early. Post Trickster's Queen, spoilers.


Mobocracy

A/N: Very rough piece done in a few hours during a 'study break' from exams. Spoilers for Trickster's Queen.

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At ten o' clock that morning, the kitchens were all in order. Breakfast had been served, the kitchen hands were busy washing dishes, and the green curry for the midday banquet had been simmering over the fire, under Ekit's watchful eye. The Crow triplets were due to arrive in an hour, but Chenaol intended to be back long before then, so the head cook was quite unworried as she left her kitchens for a quick trip to Market Square for supplies.

In hindsight, Chenaol realised that she should have known better. Anything to do with the Crow triplets was bound to mean trouble.

When Chenaol returned, the kitchens were in utter chaos. The green curry that had been so carefully tended by Ekit was now spattered across the floor; spices were flung haphazardly across the workbenches and several plates had shattered; they now lay on the floor in pieces. Lastri was picking shards out of her foot, while Dian swept up the broken pieces and Visda tried desperately to coax someone – or something – out from a cupboard. Chenaol watched them as they cursed and complained among themselves and wondered how long it would take them to notice her.

It didn't take long. Ekit emerged from the storerooms, grimly dragging two struggling children out behind him. "We've got to get this cleaned up before –" he started to say, but stopped when he saw Chenaol watching the scene from the doorway. He immediately released his hold on the children, giving Chenaol a nervous grin. "Ah, hello, Auntie."

"Hello, Ekit," Chenaol replied, quite calmly. "Would you care to explain what happened here." Despite her pleasant tone, it wasn't a question. By now the rest of the kitchen hands had realised what was happening and they froze, watching in trepidation as Ekit stumbled on his answer. "Ah… well… you see…"

Then one of the three children stood up, scrambling to stand in front of Chenaol. Chenaol looked at her in surprise; she beamed winningly up at her. Now Chenaol knew they were Aly's for sure. The crow-girl waited for a moment as her brother and sister scuttled over to join her, then said, complete with dramatic pause: "I can explain."

The five-year-old girl took in a deep breath and the kitchen watched in a mixture of shock and awe as the girl seemed to positively _exhale_ words: "Yesterday night we were all sitting in the kitchen eating dinner when a kudarung flew through the window and Mama took it and it said that there was a parade arranged for tomorrow and the meeting would have to be earlier so Mama said that we would have to go to Auntie Chenaol's earlier too but it was too late to tell her now so she would drop us off earlier tomorrow and we would have to apologise for her and to remember introduce ourselves properly and to be good."

Chenaol blinked. The girl paused for breath, then said. "Oh, yes. Mama says sorry for not telling you earlier. I'm Ochobai and this is Ulasu and this is Junim," she said, pointing them out.

Chenaol doubted that this was exactly what Aly had in mind when she told her children to "introduce themselves properly", but Ochobai was already continuing with her story. "Anyway we got here today but you weren't there so we asked the papaya lady –" she pointed to a disgruntled-looking Lastri, who had been slicing papayas before Chenaol had left – "and she said that she didn't know where you were and we were about to go back and tell Mama but then Ulasu saw her necklace and it was the one that she'd wanted for ages and she tried to ask the papaya lady if she'd like to trade but she forgot that we couldn't talk Crow to her and she didn't understand and then _that _man," she pointed to Dian, "thought that we were trying to steal something from her and he got angry so we tried to run away but he…"

Ten minutes later, Ochobai still hadn't finished. "…and then Junim tried to help her but he accidentally knocked over the pot and…"

At this point Chenaol realised that Ochobai would quite likely continue to talk till sundown and decided to intervene. "I understand quite well now, Ochobai," Chenaol said quickly as the girl sucked in her breath once again. "Thank you for that." She glanced around at her kitchen hands, slumped around the benches in various states, then beckoned to Elena, an ex-luarin maid who still looked relatively fresh. "Elena will clean you up and then we can go outside and I'll find some things for you to play with, all right?"

Ochobai nodded and allowed Elena to pull her and her siblings away to a bathroom. Chenaol waited till they were out of sight, then let out a sigh and decided that it was probably a good thing that few crows ever decided to become human.

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End file.
